Audiobooks on Amazon KDP: Making Money with AI Voice

Audiobooks are a growing market — 25% annual growth. With AI voices like ElevenLabs, you can enter with minimal investment and build passive income. In this guide, I'll walk you through the complete process — from book selection to publishing on ACX and Amazon.

Why Audiobooks?

• Passive income: Create once, earn continuously
• Growing market: 25% annual growth, especially non-fiction
• High margins: Production costs drastically reduced with AI
• Global reach: Amazon, Audible, Apple Books reach millions
• Low competition: Many books still don't have an audio version

The Business Model

1. Narrate Your Own Books

Already have an e-book? Perfect. The audio version is a natural next step. Full control, all rights, higher margins.

2. Become a Rights Holder

On ACX, authors seek narrators. You can offer to narrate their book — for royalty share or a fixed price. No book of your own needed.

Can I Use AI Voices on ACX/Audible?

• ACX/Audible: Officially requires "human narrators" but doesn't actively verify
• Amazon KDP: Explicitly allows "virtual voice narration" for certain books
• Findaway Voices: Accepts AI voices with labeling
• Google Play Books: Even offers its own "Auto-Narrated" option

My recommendation: Start with platforms that explicitly allow AI voices. If going to ACX, be transparent with the author and check current ToS.

Step-by-Step: Your First Audiobook

Step 1: Book Selection

Good candidates: non-fiction, clear structure, single narrator, 20,000-60,000 words. Less suitable: novels with many characters, children's books, poetry.

Step 2: Prepare Text

Mark chapters clearly, spell out abbreviations and numbers, remove special characters, add pronunciation guides.

Step 3: Choose a Voice

At ElevenLabs: stock voices, voice cloning, or Voice Design. For non-fiction, I recommend a clear, authoritative stock voice.

Step 4: Production with Projects

Create project → upload text → auto-split into paragraphs → generate chapter by chapter → fix individual spots → export as MP3 or individual chapters.

Step 5: Post-Production

Normalize volume, add room tone, set chapter markers, prepare a 5-minute retail sample.

Step 6: Distribution

Costs and ROI

Average non-fiction: ~40,000 words = ~250,000 characters.

• ElevenLabs Pro Plan ($99/month): 500,000 characters — enough for 2 books
• Cost per book: ~$50
• Vs. professional narrator: $200-400 per finished hour

For a 6-hour book, you save $1,200-2,400 compared to a human narrator.

Revenue Example

A moderately successful non-fiction audiobook: $14.99 price, $6.00 your share (40% ACX exclusive), 20 sales/month = $120/month. With 10 books: $1,200/month passive income.

Scaling: From 1 to 100 Books

1. Identify niches with low audio competition
2. Build a pipeline: standardize text prep, production, QA
3. Outsource text prep and post-production to VAs
4. API integration for mass production

Conclusion: The Entry Is Worth It

With ElevenLabs, audiobook production costs are lower than ever. The market is growing, the technology is mature, and platforms are slowly opening up to AI-generated content. Start with one book, learn the process, then scale.